Bigger is Better: 6 Colossal Steakhouse Desserts We Love in Chicago

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I recently had one of the best steaks of my life served off of a sizzling white platter so hot, the waves of heat hitting my face were akin to those off of blacktop at high noon in the middle of July. The platter had been placed in front of me in perfect synchrony with each of my dining partners' own sizzling hot platters. When we first sat down, we were asked if we preferred black linen rather than the white folded on the plates in front of us (in case you are as uninformed as I was, I have since found out this is for all those fancy people who would rather not deal with the possibility of a white napkin shedding on their black dress).

This steakhouse prides itself on being over-the-top, and nothing encapsulates this mission more than the gargantuan desserts it offers up at the end of what was most likely the biggest meal you've had since Christmas. And yet I found myself completely incapable of resisting the frisbee-sized round of cake we ordered. I knew this wasn't the only steakhouse offering up large-and-in-charge mammoths of sugar at the end of the meal, so I set out to find my favorite examples of one of the last great vestiges of that ancient American adage: bigger is better.

Check out the full list by clicking on the slideshow. If I missed one of your favorite ways to polish off a steak dinner, let me know. I'm always looking for the next sugary mountain to climb.

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I've always been a writer, but it took me way too long to realize that food writing is where it's at (poetry and short stories are certainly not where it's at, as it turns out). In September 2011, I started Macmaker, a blog where I waxed poetic about opening a French macaron stand in a farmers market, reviewed macarons around Chicago, tried making them myself exactly 11 times, and ultimately gave up in favor of the less-volatile and equally delicious whoopie pie. While researching macarons, I remained a faithful devotee of Serious Eats and became a contributor to the Chicago site soon after it launched, a fact I am still dumbfounded by.